\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMultiple law-enforcement agencies allege one man is behind Thursday\u2019s two-county crime spree that endangered drivers from Sanford to Orlando. 24-year-old Robert Lee Smith was booked into the Orange County jail on charges of fleeing and eluding, resisting arrest, and driving without a license. He could face charges in Seminole County as well. \u201cTo have witnessed that was just wild,\u201d said a woman who contacted WESH 2 News and provided cellphone video of the first incident. The woman doesn\u2019t want to be identified because she lives in Sanford. She called the episode on Upsala Road one of the scariest things she\u2019s ever seen: a man getting out of a silver car following a minor collision, pulling out a gun, and aiming it at the driver of the other car. The witness added, \u201cWhen I opened my window he was already threatening to literally kill the man. He was like \u2018I\u2019m going to kill him. I\u2019m going to kill him.\u2019 And he was running after him to hit him. He says, ‘You\u2019re going to have to (expletive) pay for this,’ and I did not hear what the other gentleman was saying but he was not wanting to engage.\u201d She said that after the suspect moved his vehicle, he then climbed into a red Kia that drove off. Less than three hours later, chaos erupted in downtown Orlando. WESH 2 News was there shortly after the same red Kia had struck other vehicles and smashed into a delivery van. Moments earlier, Orange County deputies had stopped the suspect\u2019s car near Colonial Drive and Orange Avenue. Another cellphone video provided to WESH 2 News shows the driver complied with a deputy\u2019s orders to exit the vehicle, but deputies said Smith climbed behind the wheel and took off. The red vehicle then drove toward the courtyard between the Camden Orange Court Apartments and the Marriott hotel, rounded a corner, and crashed into an Amazon delivery van. Investigators said Smith then tried to run away, but was quickly tased and handcuffed in front of stunned apartment residents. One witness \u2014 who identified himself only by his first name, James \u2014 told WESH 2 News, \u201cPolice started coming from every direction with guns, Tasers, everything. They were just yelling for all the residents who had come out on their balconies as to where the guy had went.” \u201cIt\u2019s not about trust. It\u2019s more about your actions, you know what I mean?\u201d a judge asked Smith and his attorney during an initial appearance Friday afternoon on the Orange County charges. After reviewing his lengthy criminal history, the judge called Smith a \u201cdanger to the community\u201d and ordered him held on $21,000. Smith, also nicknamed \u201cRatty Bang\u201d according to court documents obtained by WESH 2 News, was charged earlier this year with domestic violence on a pregnant woman. Coincidentally, those charges were dropped Friday, due to a lack of cooperation from the victim, according to the \u201cno action\u201d form filed by the office of Ninth Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell. The first-appearance judge told Smith he was very lucky, since the new charges would have required him to hold the suspect on no bond for a violation of probation, had the domestic violence case remained active. Smith also was convicted for violating an anti-stalking injunction in 2020 and received eight months in jail. In 2019, he was convicted of firing shots at a Sanford clothing store on French Avenue and endangering the lives of a woman and her children. For that, he was given a nine-month sentence. Both the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Sanford police said, for now, the man who was initially driving the red Kia is not being charged.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n